Do Your Parents Pay Your Phone Bill? 2010-04-22 07:30:08

Have Your Parents Ever Paid Your Phone Bill?

I was absolutely shocked when one of my friends told me the other day she got in trouble for going over her monthly text allowance. "Got in trouble from who?" I asked, "Work or something?"

Nope. She got in trouble from her father, who still pays her phone bill! (And yes, she paid the overage charges; about $75 worth — obviously it could have been worse.) My friend is a successful career gal with a great job, but she's been on her family's shared phone plan for years and years — and never bothered switching to her own. Granted, if I were in the same situation, I don't know that I'd be in a huge hurry to pay my own bill. . .but it still surprised me. What about you? Are you one of the fortunate few who's managed to stay on your parents' plan?

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4 years

Paying for a phone is a form of subsidy. What I am even more curious about - and if the last comment from HappyBerry is any indication - how many parents simply budget a certain amount of cash to give to their "independent" children each month? They may not help with the cell bill, but do they in fact, fork over money throughout the month to help them "make ends meet"?

4 years

I am 23 and my parents still pay for my cell phone, but that is only because I am a grad student living on $700 a month and that disappears quickly after paying rent and sending in a car payment. But, once I am out in the "real world" I intend to take my phone bill over, or at least send them the money to cover mine.

I've always paid my own phone bill, but that probably has more to do with my age than anything - if I'd have been younger when cell phones got popular I probably would have been on my family's plan, BUT my dad would have made me pay my share of the bill. That's what my younger sister and "young at heart" brother did for the longest time, until they finally got their own plans after years of being on mom & dad's plan.
I guess I could have jumped on the bandwagon, but I really value my privacy. My brothers-in-law are on their parents' plan, and they don't have any privacy... their mom (my MIL) will come into their bedroom while they are sleeping and ask them who they called at 3AM. Ha ha!

I've never paid my cell phone bill. I got a phone when I was 15 since I needed to be in constant contact with the parents. Even though I've moved out for school now, I still need to be... And being a full time student and only part time employed (with a job so variable that I get maybe 4 hours a week if any at all), I just can't foot a cell phone bill. But once I graduate and work more, definitely; I wouldn't allow my parents to foot a bill that I could take care of.

joliz - I agree. To be honest, my boyfriend has a full time job, is no longer in school, and his parents still pay his car insurance. He gives the "if they're going to pay it, why not?" excuse. His parents need to make him pay all his bills. He can't learn responsibility that way. He's going to be 22. He's been driving since he was 16. There is no reason he can't pay his own insurance. It really bothers me, but I guess it's just because I was brought up differently.
Jackiie - I, too, started out with a prepaid Tracfone, and then after getting a full time job, I moved up to a serve plan.

I've always payed for my own cell phone bill. My parents would not pay for my phone when I was 16 so I went out and I bought myself a pre paid phone. Later when i started college and had a job I moved to a service plan. Whats really unfair is that my younger siblings got a phone when they were 14-15 and my parents pay for it. One of them has a job now and my parents still pays her bill. ugh!

I have trouble taking employed people who have their parents pay their bills seriously.

4 years

In college my parents paid for the cell and even for a year or two after while I got on my feet joining the real world but once my job started paying decent I paid my own bill. But when my parents paid my bills if I wanted the fancy phone I had to pay for it on my own. Now, the plan is in my mom's name because of her county discount but I pay the bill every month.

My bf is still on his family's T-Mobile plan, but now that he wants an iPhone, I told him to hop on my plan. But no, he's still insisting that he wants his parents to pay for his phone bill. So now they're going to switch from T-Mobile to AT&T...just for him! I told him it makes no sense and that he has a job, but alas, he will always be a mama's boy at heart!

My parents paid for my phone when I got my first cellphone when I was 15 and paid for it through my first year of college. Between the age of 19-23, I paid for my own phone but last year I got back on their family plan because they had switched to AT&T and I wanted an iPhone (I was with Sprint at the time) and it made sense - it was more cost-effective for us to share a plan (I couldn't afford the iPhone talk+data plan by myself otherwise) - not to mention that my mom is the person I talk to the most so we now we can talk mobile-to-mobile all we want without worrying about overages. However, I do pay them for my portion of the bill every month.

Yes, but I do send money. We are on the family plan, one of those old "grandfather" throwbacks and it's the cheapest option.

4 years

I didn't get a cell phone until I went away to my first year of college (this was in September 2000) and I was on my Dad's plan. He paid for my cell phone for the next two years, and then once I got married (in June 2003), my husband and I got our own family plan, and we've been paying for ourselves ever since.
I understand some people saying, "Hey, if the parents are willing to offer, why not?" and I honestly don't know what I would have done if my Dad had offered to continue paying my bill. But I do think that at some point you need to start taking care of stuff like that yourself. I was at my nephew's baseball game the other day, and my grandparents were talking about their cell phone plan, and saying how they added the unlimited texting option to their plan because my uncle (my FIFTY-FIVE year old uncle) kept going over his text message limit! I kid you not - I was stunned! They said they added him to their plan to help him out after he was laid off from his job, and I understand that, and how much it helped him out, but I don't think the way to thank them for that was to continue going over his text message limit, and then never even offer them money for it!!
Sorry about the rant - it was obviously something that completely took me surprise. I do think every situation is different, and I don't think badly of any adult whose parents help them out - but for some reason, that bothered me! =/

Never. I have always had to pay for anything of mine (phone, gas, insurance, car payment, etc.)
skigurl - I totally agree. My boyfriend's parents pay for his car insurance. He is about to be 22 years old, he's not in school, and he works full time (making way more than I make). I told him that's absurd, and he needs to start taking more responsibility. You need to know how to pay a bunch of bills and manage your money in the real world. Your parents aren't always going to be there to do it for you. I'm always appauled that his parents willingly pay it. They need to teach him some responsibility.

I pay for my parents (and then they pay me back). We are all on a family plan, so I get the bill and then every couple of months I give them their total. I HATE going to the bank, so I try to keep the checks to a minimum.